Downingtown pulls together

ROSES to the people of the Downingtown area who came together to help each other out just about as fast as a sudden storm swept through the borough and snapped trees, wrecked roofs, flooded streets and otherwise caused mayhem Monday night. The severe thunderstorm knocked out power to a large part of the borough and Caln. While injuries were fortunately minor, damage was substantial from destructive wind gusts. Volunteer firefighters, public works employees and citizens helped cut back fallen trees and limbs from roads. About 35 streets had some sort of blockage in them when the 6 p.m. storm burst through. Officials guess it was all over – tops -- in 15 minutes, but it was long enough. A flash flood occurred on some streets during the accompanying heavy rain. Crews spent Monday night and all day Tuesday getting things back to normal.

A failure of equipment inside a gasoline tank farm last Saturday in East Whiteland resulted in the release of more than 5,000 gallons of fuel into the community. ROSES to firefighters and Hazmat workers who stopped the flow before it polluted waterways for miles. Workers identified the storm drain that captured the fuel, traced the exit down the road, and dammed up the stream. The fuel and polluted water were captured there. The alert effort shows the wisdom of the years of planning and practice for just such an incident by state, county and local officials. It is important to take notice when things go right when something goes wrong.

ROSES to the Borough of West Chester for promoting a free app called “West Chester Connect” to help citizens communicate information about environmental, quality of life and public safety through smart phones. The free “West Chester Connect” app is available in the Apple, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry stores. Search for “West Chester” or “West Chester Connect” to download. The app (or application to those of us from the analog period) allows users to communicate information, photographs and location to appropriate borough offices. The program allows information to be reported back to the citizen’s smartphone to keep them notified as progress in made on the information. Residents can also register at www.citysourced.com. This will provide another way to keep up on all of the work orders created.

ROSES to Coatesville City Council for passing an ordinance to require purchasers of property to be informed of existing parking restrictions on the street. Council developed the ordinance after residents recently complained that they were not informed of where they could park their vehicles in newly developed areas. Council unanimously passed a separate ordinance amending parking restrictions listed in the city code. Council removed the no parking restrictions on the south side of Oak Street between Rosemont and Fourth avenues. The ordinance was passed to allow extra parking for residents and for public parking. This may seem to be an obvious thing, something that a person might reasonably wonder why the requirement doesn’t already exist. It’s actually an indication of a good thing – new development in Coatesville. The city has lanquished between holding on and decay for decades. New development is a positive thing. It is a reminder that good things sometimes come with problems of their own.